2. Using WAI-ARIA

Complex web applications become inaccessible when assistive technologies cannot determine the semantics behind portions of a document or when the user is unable to effectively navigate to all parts of it in a usable way (see the WAI-ARIA Primer [ARIA-PRIMER]). WAI-ARIA divides the semantics into roles (the type defining a user interface element) and states and properties supported by the roles.

Authors need to associate elements in the document to a WAI-ARIA role and the appropriate states and properties (aria-* attributes) during its life-cycle, unless the elements already have the appropriate implicit WAI-ARIA semantics for states and properties. In these instances the equivalent host language states and properties take precedence to avoid a conflict while the role attribute will take precedence over the implicit role of the host language element.

2.2. WAI-ARIA States and Properties

WAI-ARIA provides a collection of accessibility states and properties which are used to support platform accessibility APIs on various operating system platforms. Assistive technologies may access this information through an exposed user agent DOM or through a mapping to the platform accessibility API. When combined with roles, the user agent can supply the assistive technologies with user interface information to convey to the user at any time. Changes in states or properties will result in a notification to assistive technologies, which could alert the user that a change has occurred.

In the following example, a list item (html:li) has been used to create a checkable menu item, and JavaScript events will capture mouse and keyboard events to toggle value of aria-checked. A role is used to make the behavior of this simple widget known to the user agent. Attributes that change with user actions (such as aria-checked) are defined in the states and properties section.

<li role="menuitemcheckbox" aria-checked="true">Sort by Last Modified</li>

Some accessibility states, called managed states, are controlled by the user agent. Examples of managed state include keyboard focus and selection. Managed states often have corresponding CSS pseudo-classes (such as :focus and ::selection) to define style changes. In contrast, the states in this specification are typically controlled by the author and are called unmanaged states. Some states are managed by the user agent, such as aria-posinset and aria-setsize, but the author can override them if the DOM is incomplete and would cause the user agent calculation to be incorrect. User agents map both managed and unmanaged states to the platform accessibility APIs.

Most modern user agents support CSS attribute selectors ([CSS]), and can allow the author to create UI changes based on WAI-ARIA attribute information, reducing the amount of scripts necessary to achieve equivalent functionality. In the following example, a CSS selector is used to determine whether or not the text is bold and an image of a check mark is shown, based on the value of the aria-checked attribute.

If CSS is not used to toggle the visual representation of the check mark, the author could include additional markup and scripts to manage an image that represents whether or not the menuitemcheckbox is checked.

2.3. Managing Focus

An application should always have an element with focus when in use, as applications require users to have a place to provide user input. Authors are advised to not destroy the element with focus or scroll it off-screen unless through user intervention. All interactive objects should be focusable. All parts of composite interactive controls need to be focusable or have a documented alternative method to achieve their function, such as a keyboard shortcut. Authors are advised to maintain an obvious, discoverable way, either through tabbing or other standard navigation techniques, for keyboard users to move the focus to any interactive element. See User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, Guideline 9 ([UAAG], Guideline 9).

When using standard HTML and basic WAI-ARIAwidgets, application developers can simply manipulate the tab order or use a script to create keyboard shortcuts to elements in the document. Use of more complex widgets requires the author to manage focus within them. SVG Tiny provides a similar navigation "ring" mechanism that by default follows document order and which should be implemented using system dependent input facilities (the TAB key on most desktop computers). SVG authors may place elements in the navigation order by manipulating the focusable attribute and they may dynamically specify the navigation order by modifying elements navigation attributes.

WAI-ARIA includes a number of "managing container" widgets, also known as "composite" widgets. When appropriate, the container is responsible for tracking the last descendant which was active (the default is usually the first item in the container). It is essential that a container maintain a usable and consistent strategy when focus leaves a container and is then later refocused. While there may be exceptions, it is recommended that when a previously focused container is refocused, the active descendant be the same element as the active descendant when the container was last focused. Exceptions include cases where the contents of a container widget have changed, and widgets like a menubar where the user expects to always return to the first item when focus leaves the menu bar. For example, if the second item of a tree group was the active descendant when the user tabbed out of the tree group, then the second item of the tree group remains the active descendant when the tree group gets focus again. The user may also activate the container by clicking on one of the descendants within it.

When the container or its active descendant has focus, the user may navigate through the container by pressing additional keys, such as the arrow keys, to change the currently active descendant. Any additional press of the main navigation key (generally the TAB key) will move out of the container to the next widget.